In a new Italian thriller on Netflix, the lives of a squad of riot cops are examined. We don’t think we’ve ever seen a show about riot cops, and it seems that it’s good fodder for a show, given they’re often like front-line soldiers as they try to keep protests from getting too violent. But when the series isn’t showing protest scenes, it feels like a generic, plot-like cop drama.
PUBLIC DISORDER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A vent fan runs, then the camera pans down to show a group of police vehicles in a tunnel.
The Gist: In a van is the Mobile Unit, a state police riot squad that’s stationed in Rome. They’ve been waiting in that van for ten hours; they are available to be deployed to a protest over a high-speed train being built in Val di Susa. Some of the squad is nervous, others sleep away the anticipation. The squad’s leader, Pietro (Fabrizio Nardi), is lamenting that his wife left him. In the tunnel is grafitti that says “ACAB”, for “All Cops Are Bastards.”
Then they get the call to go in, relieving a squad commanded by Michele Nobili (Adriano Giannini), who doesn’t wear a helmet. The Rome team holds firm against the violent protesters, and pushes them back with tear gas. But just as they think the group has receded, one of the protestors lobs a cherry bomb, which severely injures Pietro in the process.
Pietro’s second in command, Mazinga Valenti (Marco Giallini) and his squad don’t take that lightly, and they go into the woods to find some of the protesters. When they see four of them, they beat the snot out of them with their batons, which the squad then throw in a tub to get sanitized.
This isn’t the first time that the close-knit Rome squad has gone rogue, and Manzinga knows how to cover their tracks to the higher ups. But with Pietro facing surgery and a long recovery, the squad gets a new commander: Nobili. He doesn’t have a good reputation among the riot police; he is seen as a rat by those in the know. But he wants to be closer to his daughter.
Mazinga talks to the wife of his estranged son, who comes by looking for the housewares he was promised. Marta (Valentina Bellè) is a single mother who is irritated when her daughter’s absentee dad sends her new roller skates. When the squad finds out that one of the people they beat up is in a coma, Mazinga tells Salvatore (Pierluigi Gigante) to remind the squad that they were never near the river.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Public Disorder (original title: ACAB) is based on the 2012 film ACAB. In tone, it feels like it could be a spinoff of NCIS or FBI.
Our Take: Public Disorder feels like a show that needs more. While we were watching the first episode, it struck us that minutes had gone by and, while there were a lot of scenes of the helmet-and-shield wearing riot cops pushing and resisting a group of protestors, not a whole heck of a lot happened. Then Pietro gets hurt, and then… not a lot happens. There are plenty of scenes of people staring out of van windows, however.
What we’re trying to discern is exactly what the story of this show’s first season is. Is it going to be watching this squad be deployed at one scene of protests after another? Is it going to be the team trying to stay quiet about their aggressiveness in attacking that group of protesters? Is it going to be about Michele trying to build trust with a team that has reason not to trust him? Or will it be vignettes about how the cops’ jobs intrude into their personal lives?
It could be all of the above. If so, that also might be a problem, because then the show will lack focus. So, either we have the potential for too little plot, or the potential for too much. Perhaps the show’s creator, Filippo Gravino, has an idea how to get the show into balance. As of now, though, it just feels like a group of men — and one woman — yelling and grunting at each other for six episodes, which just elicits shrugs from us.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: The squad bangs on the window of Pietro’s hospital room and chants for him when they see he’s awakened from his coma.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Valentina Bellè as Marta, because she got a fair amount of meaty backstory in the first episode.
Most Pilot-y Line: In a couple of scenes that take place at the police cafeteria and in the director’s office, there is a lot of aggressive cutting, biting and chewing going on. These riot teams even eat with gusto!
Our Call: SKIP IT. Public Disorder features a group of characters in search of a story, which is never a good thing, even in an action series.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Public Disorder’ On Netflix, A Drama About The Lives Of A Squad Of Italian Riot Police appeared first on Decider.
